Epaggelia

Five times in this anonymous Psalm, the author calls God, the LORD (Jehovah) which is the sacred name for God indicating his eternal self-existent nature which is in popular use by the Nation of Israel, when Jews read it, they will not pronounce it, but say “HaShem” meaning “the name”. Therefore this Psalm is all about why we praise the Lord.

v1, it’s never a good idea to try and praise the Lord with only half a heart. The apostle Paul teaches the Church to try and fully understand what we are singing, and that we believe in what we are singing, 1st Corinthians 14:12-17, Why? Because God never changes in what he desires and who He is. Jeremiah 24:1-7 & Romans 6:17. The words “council” and “assembly”, indicates our praise is desired in both private and public gatherings. Singing by our self is acceptable, but singing together is preferred, The Lord loves unity demonstrated & experienced. When we have our whole heart praising God, we will then experience this verse, it is simply where I love to be and what I love to do.

v2, Understanding what the Lord has done, helps us discover why He did it. This knowledge doesn’t help us know how He works, but better than that, He teaches us why! Romans 8:6. The child prodigy and brilliant mathematician Blaise Pascal wrote “Philosophy searches for truth, theology finds it, but religion possesses it, therefore human things must be known to be loved, but divine things must be loved to be known” ~ B. Pascal 1623-1662. It is noteworthy that in all of our modern technology and progressive savvy, we still do not understand how the pyramids were built, or how stonehenge was made, so why do we quit admiring God when we are puzzled at how he performed a miracle, or how he wrote the Bible? We can still praise God for knowing WHY He worked, works and that he will work, regardless of how.

v3, Glorious and majestic are his deeds, and his righteousness endures forever. Whoever needs this statement explained is one of three types of people; 1- an atheist or 2- simply ignorant of Jesus Christ or 3- a pervert that deliberately rejects the reality of a creator in the design of creation that faces them everyday, as described in Romans 1:20-24.

v4, It is because of God’s compassionate grace, that he establishes ways to remember what he has done in the past. Both the work and word of God will never be diminished from us or our future generations. Modern archeology attests to Biblical authenticity and God provides both. Jude v25.

v5, Respecting God and living like it, brings delicious benefits! He created our tongue with more varieties of taste buds that any other mammal, so his faithful children could enjoy the food. Therefore we praise Him for both our pleasures, and his promises in a better covenant, Luke 22:20 & Hebrews 12:24.

v6, Modern Israel will never forget historical Israel, and neither should they forget their land is given to them from God, who took it off the ancestors of their neighbors, who had it first! Therefore Christians should never live like we deserve what we are given, if we haven’t earned what we have. Treating a gift, like it was something we paid for, makes us look ugly through the eyes of the Giver.

v7-8, See Deuteronomy 32:3-4, a Song from the Law, and the author remains the same!

v9, The fulfillment of this redemption is in Christ. The promise of it, in this praise, was annually tasted of in their Day of Atonement.

v10, It seems like Solomon might have been more than familiar with this Psalm, or perhaps had a hand in writing it? See Proverbs 1:7 & 9:10